Dear Ellis Team – Your Real Estate Questions Answered

Q: I’ve been paying my mortgage but slipped behind on my HOA fees. I didn’t want the bank to foreclose. I was surprised to learn that my homeowner’s association filed foreclosure on me. Is this normal? Alex

A: Alex, sorry to hear about your dilemma. This however is a great question. We have been seeing more and more condo and homeowner’s associations foreclosing for non-payment. We always tell people, pay your HOA first as some of them will foreclosure faster than a bank will.

Q: My home has been on the market for 4 months and we haven’t had a single showing. Are agents lazy? How come nobody wants to show my home? I didn’t want to pay a commission in the first place and I didn’t like my agent’s price. I told her if she wanted that much we’d have to raise the price for her to get it. I guess she didn’t want it that bad! Anonymous

A: Well anonymous, where to begin? The seller sets the price and the market determines the value. If you’ve priced your home above where the market is, you may not receive any showings. Why would a Realtor deliberately show an over-priced home when they can show other homes a buyer might actually buy? Sellers often believe they can always come down but you can’t go up. This isn’t even true as we have several homes that sell above asking price. It sounds like you wanted what you wanted for the home regardless of what the market was bearing. The market doesn’t care what you want or need. The market only cares about value.I’m also concerned about 2 other things. You’re blaming your agent for your mistake. The agent isn’t to blame for you wanting more than the market will bear. I do blame your agent for taking the listing in the first place. Sometimes a home has few comparable sales to value properly, and sometimes you just have to bring it to the market and see how market responds. Your agent should be communicating with you about re-positioning your home in the marketplace. Your question doesn’t tell us anything about that. If she has, she’s doing her job. We really need more facts to answer this any better.

Q: I went on abc.com (we blanked out the actual website) and it said my home was worth $412,000. I go on every day and it changes wildly. One day it said $350,000 and another it was up to $475,000. How can the market vary that much in such a short time?

A: The site you are talking about is historically unreliable. In fact, in the fine print it used to say their data was intentionally off. I guess this made online viewers have to check back often, which increased viewership, and thus advertising rates. Some of those national sites are filled with bad data. To get a more accurate and reliable estimate, go to our site www.LeeCountyOnline.com Even then it is just a computer. For the most accurate, call us and have Sande or myself evaluate your property if you’re thinking of selling. 239-489-4042

Q: What are the qualifications to becoming an agent? Can anybody do it?

A: Just about anybody can. You must not have a felony. You do not need to be a college graduate at this time. Anybody can do it, but not everybody is the same. Anybody can play baseball, but it doesn’t mean everybody is good at it. The best practice every day, learn, take classes, and work all day at it. Real estate takes work, and for those that are prepared to out-work everybody else, you can do it. You can do real estate part-time, but you won’t be great at it. It takes years of learning about property, people and situations. There’s always a place for great people in real estate, and yet about 80% fail within a year. It’s all about you and what you’re willing to put into it.
If you have more questions, give Sande or myself a call. 239-489-4042. We love helping people.
Good luck and Happy Selling!

We hope you enjoyed our answer. If you’d like to ask more questions, simply write Dear Ellis Team and we’ll be glad to answer your questions.